Washington Nationals: Handicapping the Bryce Harper sweepstakes

Washington Nationals superstar right fielder, Bryce Harper, is now free to sign anywhere, but what are the Nationals chances at bringing him back to D.C.?

Bryce Harper and his agent, Scott Boras, have been preparing for this offseason since the Washington Nationals drafted Harper first overall way back in 2010. As Boras worded it at the General Managers meetings last week, “Harper’s Bazaar has begun”.

Boras is planning on making Harper the highest paid free agent in the history of Major League Baseball, both in terms of overall value and average annual value. That means Harper’s next contract will be larger than Giancarlo Stanton‘s 13-year, $325 million deal and will surpass Zack Greinke‘s $34.4 million average annual value.

Those two numbers alone should narrow the list of suitors down to about 6-8 teams, but each comes with their own question mark as to whether or not they are actually ready to commit that type of money to one player. Let’s also not forget the “mystery team” who will surely be lurking at the end of all of this.

In this article, we’ll handicap Harper’s five most likely free agent destinations, starting with the most likely destination.